{"title":"Paul Carter","description":"\u003cp\u003ePaul Carter's work spans a diverse range of themes, from incisive explorations of \u003cem\u003epolitics and governance\u003c\/em\u003e to adventurous tales rooted in travel and nature. His writing often blends personal insight with broader social and environmental concerns, offering readers a unique perspective that challenges conventional narratives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhether delving into memoir, science, or uncategorised stories, Carter's books invite reflection on place, identity, and the complex interactions between people and their environments. Expect thoughtful, engaging works that traverse boundaries and stimulate the mind.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"dont-tell-mum-i-work-on-the-rigs-she-thinks-im-a-piano-player-in-a-whorehouse","title":"Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs...She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eDon't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs...She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse\u003c\/i\u003e by Paul Carter is an exhilarating memoir that delves into the wild and unpredictable world of oil rig workers. This book offers readers a front-row seat to the life of Paul Carter, a seasoned roughneck whose career in the oil industry has taken him to the most remote and volatile regions on the planet. \n\nPaul Carter's narrative arc is shaped by his many incredulous and hair-raising experiences. From narrowly escaping death due to dysentery in Asia, to braving toothache in the severe Russian winters, his encounters are as diverse as they are dangerous. One memorable anecdote includes watching a Texan lose his sanity amidst the oppressive jungles of Asia. Another recounts the surreal moment of being served cocktails by an orang-utan aboard an ocean freighter. Carter's life is a whirlwind of high stakes and high tension, punctuated with dry wit and gallows humour. \n\nHis postings have been in some of the wildest, most remote, and undeniably hazardous corners of the globe, such as the North Sea, Middle East, Borneo, and Tunisia. The narrative also covers his adventures in exotic locales like Sumatera, Vietnam, and Thailand, as well as the perilous environments of Columbia, Nigeria, and Russia. Through these tales, readers are introduced to some of the most eccentric, notorious, and formidable individuals found in the oil trade.\n\nPaul Carter has been through the wringer - he's been shot at, hijacked, held hostage, and has navigated a plethora of other deadly scenarios with a combination of sheer grit and dark, irreverent humour. Whether he's recounting the absurdity of betting on death matches between a mouse and a scorpion or detailing the chaos of oil rig operations, Carter's stories are both captivating and ludicrously funny.\n\nIn addition to the chaos on the rigs, the memoir also explores Carter's quieter moments, providing a picturesque yet starkly contrasting depiction of his serene life in Sydney when he’s not courting disaster at his perilous day job. This dichotomy between his adventurous professional life and his tranquil personal life adds depth to his narrative, making it both relatable and extraordinary.\n\nRenowned figures have praised the book's engaging style. John Birmingham, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHe Died with a Felafel in his Hand\u003c\/i\u003e, calls it \"Great two-fisted writing from the far side of hell.\" Likewise, Phillip Noyce, director of \u003ci\u003eThe Quiet American\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eClear and Present Danger\u003c\/i\u003e, describes it as \"A unique look at a gritty game. Relentlessly funny and obsessively readable.\"\n\n\u003ci\u003eDon't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs...She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse\u003c\/i\u003e is an enthralling, often laugh-out-loud journey through the life of an oil rig worker, whose experiences will keep readers hooked from start to finish. This memoir is an absolute must-read for anyone looking for an unfiltered and hilariously honest glimpse into a world few dare to explore.\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45706226106604,"sku":"9781741146981","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781741146981.jpg?v=1725885543"},{"product_id":"this-is-not-a-drill-by-paul-carter-9781741751253","title":"This is Not a Drill","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCarter writes as if he has ADD, careering through his life on oil rigs in exotic locations. He won't win the Booker, but his yarns burn with anarchic energy—in a word, irrepressible.' - \u003ci\u003eHerald Sun\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHe's back on the rigs and back in trouble.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePicking up right where he left off, Paul Carter pulls out more tall tales of a mad, bad and dangerous life in the international oil trade. Starting with action and mayhem galore, \u003ci\u003eThis Is Not a Drill\u003c\/i\u003e sets an unrelenting pace that just doesn't let up, as Paul almost drowns when the Russian rig he's working on begins to capsize; is reunited with his Dad—another adrenaline junkie; gets married; hangs out with his rig pig buddies in exotic locations; gets hammered on vodka in Sakhalin; and spends a couple of interesting weeks in Afghanistan with some mates who run an outfit that just happens to contract out mercenaries for hire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the next fast, furious and very funny book from Paul Carter, the author of the bestselling \u003ci\u003eDon't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46556452716780,"sku":"9781741751253","price":26.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3414213482808.jpg?v=1750148787"},{"product_id":"parrot-by-paul-carter-9781861892379","title":"Parrot","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eParrot\u003c\/em\u003e by Paul Carter is a fascinating natural and cultural history of parrots. It covers three broad areas: \u003cstrong\u003eParrotics\u003c\/strong\u003e — the historical, cultural and scientific classifications of parrots; \u003cstrong\u003eParroternalia\u003c\/strong\u003e — the association of parrots with the different languages, ages, tastes, and dreams of society; and \u003cstrong\u003eParrotology\u003c\/strong\u003e — the mimicry of parrots and what that can tell us about our own systems of communication.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHighly illustrated, with images drawn from a wide range of cultures, historical periods and media, \u003cem\u003eParrot\u003c\/em\u003e is a humorous roller-coaster ride through parrots in literature, jokes, folklore, mythology, film, TV, and children's stories worldwide. It also discusses parrot conservation, talking bird experiments, and parrot portraiture. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis book differs from previous histories, which have treated parrots as subjects of curiosity and a pretext for elegy. A new kind of animal history, \u003cem\u003eParrot\u003c\/em\u003e is philosophical and poetic: it takes seriously the critical and ironic mirror that parrots hold up to human society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHumorously written and wide-ranging in scope, \u003cem\u003eParrot\u003c\/em\u003e will have wide appeal, and will be of interest to parrot enthusiasts and specialists, as well as scholars of animals in culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46854739886316,"sku":"9781861892379","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/c419b805a890ec4c3f0f0c8161de8d6d.jpg?v=1759265629"},{"product_id":"is-that-thing-diesel-by-paul-carter-9781741757026","title":"Is That Thing Diesel?","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt forty years old, a successful writer, husband, and father, no longer toiling on offshore drilling rigs, was Paul Carter happily nestled in the cotton wool of suburban life enjoying the fruits of his labour? Was he f\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003ek!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith his manic life left far behind and the perfect opportunity to take it easy stretched before him, what else would a middle-aged, bike-obsessed man want? Yes, that's right, he'd want to be the first guy to ride around Australia on an underpowered experimental motorcycle that runs on used cooking oil, wouldn't he? Preferably without getting hit by a semi-trailer full of bridge parts. Is he out of his mind? Quite possibly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEmbark on a rollickingly, downright dangerous and often unhinged quest that starts on an environmentally friendly motorcycle built on a shoestring budget by students, and ends with a plan to break the motorcycle land speed record for biofuel. Carter is back to his old balls-to-the-wall style of writing, prepare to laugh out loud.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIs That Thing Diesel?\u003c\/em\u003e offers an exhilarating ride alongside Paul Carter, as he takes readers on this incredible journey filled with humour, adventure, and the thrill of pushing limits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072300564716,"sku":"9781741757026","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3471943482808.jpg?v=1765092166"},{"product_id":"meeting-place-by-paul-carter-9780816685394","title":"Meeting Place","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this remarkable and often dazzling book, Paul Carter explores the conditions for sociability in a globalised future. He argues that we make many assumptions about communication but overlook barriers to understanding between strangers, as well as the importance of improvisation in overcoming these obstacles to meeting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCarter offers novel ways of presenting the philosophical dimensions of waiting, meeting, and non-meeting in \u003cem\u003eMeeting Place\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47596971884780,"sku":"9780816685394","price":98.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780816685394-meeting-place.jpg?v=1777945228"},{"product_id":"decolonising-governance-by-paul-carter-9780815380498","title":"Decolonising Governance","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePower may be globalised, but Westphalian notions of sovereignty continue to determine political and legal arrangements domestically and internationally: global issues—the legacy of colonialism expressed in continuing human displacement and environmental destruction—are thus treated ‘parochially’ and ineffectually. Not designed for dealing with situations of interdependence, democratic institutions find themselves in crisis. Reform in this case is not simply operational but conceptual: political relationships need to be drawn differently; the cultural illiteracy that prevents the local knowledge invested in places made after their stories needs to be recognised as a major obstacle to decolonising governance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eArchipelagic thinking refers to neglected dimensions of the earth’s human geography but also to a geo-politics of relationality, where governance is understood performatively as the continuous establishment of exchange rates. Insisting on the poetic literacy that must inform a decolonising politics, Carter suggests a way out of the incommensurability impasse that dogs assertions of indigenous sovereignty. Discussing bicultural areal management strategies located in south-west Victoria, Maluco (Indonesia) and inter-regionally across the Arafura and Timor Seas, Carter argues for the existence of creative regions constituted archipelagically that can intervene to rewrite the theory and practice of decolonisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA book of great stylistic elegance and deftness of analysis, \u003cem\u003eDecolonising Governance\u003c\/em\u003e is an important intervention in the related fields of ecological, ecocritical and environmental humanities. Methodologically innovative in its foregrounding of relationality as the nexus between poetics and politics, it will also be of great interest to scholars in a range of areas, including communicational praxis, land\/sea biodiversity design, bicultural resource management, and the constitution of post-Westphalian regional jurisdictions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47605580398828,"sku":"9780815380498","price":667.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780815380498-decolonising-governance.jpg?v=1778132393"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/paul-carter.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}